MONEY & PRICES — COMPARISON
Drop-Off Catering vs Full-Service Catering — Costs and When Each Works
One format arrives on boards and leaves you to it; the other brings a team. Here is what each includes, what each costs on our published card, and how to choose.
Drop-off catering is food delivered ready to serve — no staff, no setup — and it is the cheapest way to feed a group well. Our office platters in Cape Town start from R195 pp with a ten-guest minimum, ordered by 10am for next-day delivery. Full-service catering brings people: a chef cooking or finishing on site, servers at published ratios, setup and breakdown. Our corporate band runs from R395–695 pp with a R10,000 minimum spend, quoted all-in and itemised. from R195 pp per person · Min 10 guests.
The short answer
Drop-off catering is food delivered ready to serve — no staff, no setup — and it is the cheapest way to feed a group well. Our office platters in Cape Town start from R195 pp with a ten-guest minimum, ordered by 10am for next-day delivery. Full-service catering brings people: a chef cooking or finishing on site, servers at published ratios, setup and breakdown. Our corporate band runs from R395–695 pp with a R10,000 minimum spend, quoted all-in and itemised.
The choice is rarely about the food. It is about who does the work in the room — topping up, clearing, keeping hot food hot, managing dietary splits at service — and whether the occasion needs that work done by professionals. A Tuesday training day doesn't; a client reception almost always does.
What drop-off catering includes
Drop-off is the lowest-touch thing we do, and the rules are simple.
Included
- sandwich and wrap platters, salad bowls, breakfast boards and sweet platters, sized to your headcount.
- printed labels per platter with dietary contents and allergen flags; vegan and gluten-free packed separately by default.
- delivery in your slot inside Zone 1 at no travel charge; Zone 2–3 follows the published zone table.
Quoted separately
- staff, setup, hot service or clearing — the platters arrive ready to serve and the room is yours.
- Timing: order by 10am for next-day delivery; same-day only where a production slot exists, with a rush line.
What full-service catering includes
Full service is a production. You are paying for people, and for the plan that puts them in the right place at the right time.
Included
- menu consult, a fixed itemised quote and a named coordinator for staffed events.
- service staffing at published ratios — for standing events, one server per twenty-five to thirty guests.
- dietary needs mapped onto labelled buffet lines or plated alternatives, with an allergen matrix for large events.
Quoted separately
- rentals beyond standard kit, Zone 2–3 travel and festive multipliers.
- venue hire, AV and liquor supply — we serve drinks you supply; we don't sell them.
The cost difference, worked
Orientation numbers from the published card. Twenty people on drop-off platters at from R195 pp is from R3,900, delivered. The same twenty on full-service corporate catering at from R395 pp would be R7,900 — but the R10,000 minimum spend applies, so a staffed lunch for twenty starts at that floor. For forty guests, full service from R395 pp is R15,800, comfortably above the minimum.
Staffing is where most of the gap lives. Waiters start from R195 an hour with a four-hour minimum (from R780 each), bartenders from R225 an hour, and flat event staffing runs R950–1,400 per event. Our corporate quotes are all-in: chefs, waiters, rentals, travel and setup appear as lines you approve, and if it is not on the quote it does not appear on the invoice. For a wider view across every format, our catering cost guide benchmarks per-person costs across the Cape Town market.
| Service | From |
|---|---|
| Office drop-off plattersMin 10 guests | fromR195per person |
| Corporate cateringMin spend R10,000 · All-in quote — staff, rentals, travel itemised | fromR395–695per person |
| Canapés receptionMin 20 guests | fromR395per person |
| Waiter4-hour minimum | fromR195per hour |
| Flat event staffing | fromR950–1 400per event |
Verified October 2026 · Festive 1.5×–2× · Prices include VAT where stated.
When drop-off is the right call
Recurring office feeding: weekly team lunches, monthly board packs, every-Friday breakfasts. These run best on an office account — a standing order you can amend by 10am the day before, one consolidated monthly invoice, and dietary preferences kept on file so the vegan board arrives without anyone re-explaining it.
Working sessions where food is fuel rather than the point: training days, workshops, long meetings and client visits that need feeding without a production. Platters hold through a long meeting, and nobody has to manage service staff in the room.
Small groups and tight budgets: at ten to twenty people, the R10,000 minimum spend on staffed corporate catering is often more than the occasion needs. Drop-off gives a good spread for a fraction of that — and we'd rather sell you the right amount than over-cater a boardroom.
When you need full service
When the food is part of the impression: client receptions, launches, executive lunches and year-end functions. A tray-passed canapé reception from R395 pp (min 20 guests) or a plated boardroom lunch needs people in the room, and the difference shows.
When there is hot food, a bar or a crowd: anything served hot over several hours, any bar service, and anything above a few dozen guests benefits from staff who keep lines moving and clear as they go. For standing events we plan one bartender per forty to fifty guests, scaled up when cocktails replace wine.
When the brief says celebration: year-end functions and team days often want a chef-run braai or a spit, and our corporate catering page routes those alongside conference and boardroom formats. Ke Dezemba — year-end season from mid-November — and February are the two booking spikes; lock those dates early.
Questions to settle before you order either
Five answers decide the format faster than any menu does. Have them ready when you message us.
Included
- Who is eating — colleagues on a working day, or clients you want to impress?
- How long is the food out — a one-hour lunch, or a full-day workshop with breakfast and lunch?
- Is anything served hot, and is there a bar? Either one usually means staff in the room.
Quoted separately
- Where does the headcount sit against the R10,000 minimum spend on staffed corporate catering?
- Is it a one-off or recurring? Recurring work belongs on an office account with one monthly invoice.
The hybrid most offices end up with
Most office accounts start with platters and graduate to a staffed event when the occasion asks for it: drop-off for the routine, a staffed canapé reception for the year-end, a boardroom lunch for the executives. Same team, same rate card, same itemised quote — which makes a year of office catering easy to budget in one conversation.
If you're not sure which side of the line your event sits on, send the date, headcount, venue and occasion on WhatsApp. We'll tell you which format fits, and if a cheaper one does, we'll say so. Our framework for how to choose a caterer applies the same test to anyone you compare us with.
Questions, answered.
We update this guide annually — figures re-verified October 2026.
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